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Robots in Hospitals
Dieppe writes "Robot couriers are being used in hospitals CNN. The robots are being used as delivery 'bots to deliver medicine and other hospital supplies. They are polite, and even can be overly cautious. I wonder if at night they supply them with saws, arms and other cutting devices and let them at each other? Turns out they're cost effective as well!"
There was a comic I won at a school fair in the late 60's, with cover ripped off (probably return donated by distributor) Magnus Robot Fighter, which would fit the bill rather well.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Uh, I think we all know what happens next.
Robots are also being used in delicate surgeries, to ease hand tremors by the surgeon. They use various methods of control, but the basic idea is the doctor is in a different room and the robot in the operating room, weilding the scalpel, clamps, camera, etc.
ResidntGeek
So basically, nothing has changed since Tron?
Or since the kit-based "line follower" robots, for that matter.
(Yes, I know that most other bots are smarter than that, I used to live across the street from Pyxis. Get over it, I did RTFM.)
Doctor: Scalpel.
Robot: Scalpel.
Doctor: Domo arigato, Nurse Roboto.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
The HelpMate asks people, "please examine my contents," when it makes a delivery.
I can't wait to see what phrase gets hacked into the voice processsor to replace this informative gem.
Have you Meta Moderated t
In Germany, an US product called RoboDoc was working for several years doing pre-programmed hip joint operations. Several hundreds of victims are now preparing to sue the hospitals - the ensanguined operations have led to severe destructions in nerves, muscles and bones.
Too bad that they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
dinner: it's what's for beer
My mother (an RN) was recently complaining about the hospital she works in going to using computers in place of paper to do all the patient reports. She had a fit when I told her the local hospitals are using laptops and scanners in every room and medicines are kept lockedup until the nurse scans the patient ID. After the computer verifies the patient it then unlocks the proper drawer so the nurse can get the proper medicine. Now this comes along and she will end up in a nut house for sure.
Sig temporarily out of service.
University of Virginia Hospital could save as much as $218,000 a year if it replaced 15 human couriers with six HelpMate robots, which would pay for themselves in little over three years.
Its not just IT workers that are in danger, and its not just Indian workers that are taking away jobs.
But thats just how the world works. Invention brings about efficiency but it also opens new avenues for humans. After all H. Ford's assembly line has created a net gain in jobs, right?
I for one welcome our new ... bah, hello nurse :)
These would be very useful in performing all the menial hospital tasks and free up nurses to do the more important stuff. For instance, why not have bots that empty bedpans, scrub/disinfect the floors (and vac up the occasional 'urp). It would also be beneficial to have 'bots for retrieving/turning the hefty or bedridden patients. This would also help in lowering the nursing staff injuries due to fatty-tossing (I have relatives that routinely lift 500+ lb'ers).
The day when the robots are seen searching the hospital records for a particular "Sarah Connor"
"Me fail English, that's unpossible." --Ralphie
Works just like the article says - takes drugs from the pharmacy to the floor. Fairly straightforward, really. I'm honestly surprised there aren't more in use - most hospitals (of any real size - I'm not counting all the rural 30- and 40-bed hospitals) use a pneumatic tube system of some sort to deliver meds to the floors, and those are notoriously difficult and expensive to maintain.
>I wonder if at night they supply them with saws,
>arms and other cutting devices and let them at each
>other? Turns out they're cost effective as well!
The first rule of Robot Club is _no_ talking about Robot Club.
Well, sort of anyway. I work in alot of hospitals all around the country. Anyway, at one of the hospitals, I get in the elivator on the first floor, push the button for the 3rd floor and the door closed.
The elivator stops on the second floor and one of these robots get in. It took what seemed like forever for it to get in the elivator and get turned around. Once it had turned the right way in the elivator it then proceeded to make a bunch of tones.
The doors closed, and the elivator began to move, it then bypassed my floor went all the way to the 8th floor. Where it got out and left me standing their.
Apparently at this hospital the robots have priority on all elivator trafic. It simply overrode my selection and put in its own.
Damn Robots.
No sexual harassment lawsuits
No labor strikes
No complaints from handling things that smell bad
No danger from needlesticks or infections
Less possibility of contamination from outside sources or recontamination from things like cell phones
Easier to sterilize than live personel
More privacy
Unfortunatly, robots have been known to beat up old people and steal their medicine. And once they have you, you can't get away because robots are very strong. Fortunatly, they're coming out with insurance for people who are worried that they might become the victim of robots.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
>> Oh, yeah. I can just see the original thinkers at Hollywood, Inc. making a movie about these.
> Hey! We could call it "I Robot"! Man, I can hear Asimov rolling around in his coffin...
Wow, the way you connected the dots there is just scary insightful.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Um, I'm not sure why this would be modded offtopic. I'm a doctor and work in hospitals quite a bit. This is a real problem. The human couriers are often paid little so competence is not the norm for many of these workers. There are often long delays gettin meds up to the floors as a result. Also, drug abuse or selling does occur among the staff and MDs despite many obsticals. Obviously, a robot has no interest in taking drugs for its own purposes so this is clearly a real advantange.
:)
We have one of these things in one of the hospitals I work in routinely. So far its done a good job. I haven't heard any complaints yet. Plus, its surprisingly entertaining to jump back and forth in its path forcing it to try and find a route around you. this doesn't help expediency however
PING
I HAVE A DELIVERY
PING
On a loop every 30 seconds until someone responded (annoying when you aren't well). IIRC it had numeric code and a different compartment for each nurses station, so no stealing from others.
Funniest was when it would encounter a wet floor sign or similar, and didn't know the difference btw that and a human. Would say "Excuse me, I need to get thru" 2-3x, then back up and go around.
Wonder if they had to pay royalties to Steven Hawking for having the robot simulate his voice?
LETS DECOMPOSE & ENJOY ASSEMBLING
AGVS (Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems) have been in use in factories, hospitals, prisons, jails, mail rooms, etc. for a long time. The last real job I had (prior to becoming self employed) was as Service Manager for a robotics company that built AGVS with capacities ranging from 50lbs. to 6000lbs. and carried everything from the mundane mail and laundry to (exciting stuff!) explosives, and in one installation, people. Inmates, in fact, from the jail to the courthouse and back via an underground tunnel. Get busted, ride a robot!
One client company who shall remain nameless (hint: starts with an "I" and ends with "ntel") had problems with jealous employees sabotaging and abusing the AGV's in their factories, believing that they were replacing human workers. Maybe they did replace human workers, maybe they were responsible for keeping more jobs in the US than would have been offshored without them. I dunno.
Those AGV's all had voices, and were polite. If you were detected on or near the (buried) guidepath, the vehicle would slow and politely say, "Excuse me." If you didn't step away, the vehicle would stop and repeat "excuse me" every so often until you did. (It was comical to encounter a stalled machine asking a cardboard box to move.) Once you moved, it would say, "Thank you" and proceed on its way. Upon arriving at a destination where it expected human interaction, it would stop and say, "Hello."
We built AGV's that could open and close doors, ride elevators, and accept their marching orders via wireless LAN or manual entry. The more complex installations had central controllers that could dispatch a vehicle from anywhere in the facility to anywhere else, tell it what to do at each stop along the way, route them on alternate paths to avoid congestion, etc. They were adept at avoiding collisions with other vehicles, and taking themselves out of service as they neared battery depletion -- when they'd seek an opportunity charger and put themselves on charge. Fun stuff.
The mail delivery vehicle in our factory received far less maintenance than it ought to have, and sometimes wandered into a wall, where it would patiently ask, "excuse me", until it was rescued. So I named it Harvey (because it was a Wallbanger). One of our more powerful machines, during prototype testing, moved Harvey's favorite wall by several inches -- I wonder if they were involved in some kind of conspiracy.
That company, Apogee Robotics, ceased operations ten years ago and certainly wasn't without competition. This stuff ain't news!
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